Waheela
The waheela or great white wolf is a cryptid canid reported from and the northern , including . It is described as an enormous and dangerous white wolf, three-and-a-half-feet at the shoulder, and has been speculated by cryptozoologists to be a living bear-dog (family Amphicyonidae).Eberhart, George (2002) Mysterious Creatures: A Guide to CryptozoologyShukerNature: WITCHIE WOLVES, MEDICINE WOLVES, AND THE WAHEELAShuker, Karl (2014) The Beasts That Hide from Man''Shuker, Karl (1995) ''In Search of Prehistoric Survivors Description The waheela resembles a wolf, but is much larger and most robust, with a broader head, shorter legs (though its front legs are longer than its hind legs), thicker tails, and smaller ears. Their toes are heavily splayed, possibly giving them a flat-footed gait, like that of a bear. Its fur is very long and shaggy, and may be thick enough to protect it from bullets. Its tracks are 8 inches across. Indians of the Nahanni Valley describe them as solitary scavengers which are "aloof from humans" (whilst also supposedly blaming them for a number of human deaths), but in Michigan it is said to hunt down moose in packs. The Nahanni Valley Indians also say they are rarer than wolves and spend most of the year in the northern tundra regions, coming south in the water. However, in the Nahanni Valley and "certain other valleys to the west", they remain all year round. Sightings Undated Loren Coleman discovered a colonial-era account of a waheela-like animal from Michigan, where three trappers supposedly sighted a "phantom-like giant white wolf" near a lake.Cryptomundo >> Dire Wolves, Shunka Warak'ins, and Waheelas Karl Shuker writes that this encounter was fatal. Native Americans of the Nahanni Valley, known as the "Valley of the Headless Men" due to a number of unexplained deaths of prospectors and travellers, whose bodies were found without their heads, claim that the waheela is responsible for these killings. Tex Zeigler, a cameraman and film director, gathered information on the waheela whilst visiting Alaska. Dale A. Drinnon mentioned a supposed Bigfoot sighting which may have actually referred to the waheela.Frontiers of Zoology: Waheela circa 1940's or 1950's Frank Graves relayed to Ivan T. Sanderson that, during the 1940's or 1950's, he had encountered a waheela, which he called "the grand-daddy of all wolves", in the Nahanni Valley.Sanderson, Ivan T., "The Dire Wolf", Pursuit, no. 28 (October 1974) As recounted by Karl Shuker: :"Frank had left some friends at a camp below the Virginia Falls, and had journeyed up the Nahanni River with an American Indian friend whose home lay some distance further north. After a day's strenuous paddling, they made camp, and for several days they remained in this area, hunting game for food, which was plentiful here. One day, after reaching a plateau carpeted with grass and bushes but ringed by dense forests below a steep bank, the Indian decided to try and flush some game from the forest. So he told Frank to stay on the plateau, where he could readily spy and thus bag any-thing that emerged from the trees below. :"After waiting on the plateau for a time, Frank suddenly noticed some bushes at the very edge of the forests begin to move. He called out, to ensure that it was not his companion who was responsible for this movement, but he received no response — at first. Then, without any warning, an amazing creature stealthily emerged, which Frank evocatively described as "the grand-daddy of all wolves"! :"It resembled a pure-white wolf, with very long, shaggy fur, but was truly enormous, standing about three and a half feet at the shoul-der. Apart from its snowy pelage, however, the most eye-catching fea-ture of this extraordinary animal was its head, which was very wide. :"After it moved to within 20 paces of him, Frank became so alarmed that he fired both barrels of his 12-gauge shotgun, loaded with birdshot and heavy ball, and was convinced that he scored a hit on the beast's left flank. However, his shot did not seem to have any effect upon the creature, which was no doubt shielded from injury by its exceedingly dense coat. Instead, it simply turned away, and leisurely ambled back into the forest. Thoroughly bemused and shaken, Frank lost no time in relating his eerie visitation to his Indian friend, but received no reply from him. It was evident that his friend knew of such animals, but considered them to be evil, ill-omened entities. Nevertheless, Frank eventually persuaded him to talk about them, and learned that they were indeed familiar to him. :"The Indian stated that the creature Frank had seen was not a wolf but something completely different. Its kind are much larger than wolves and have much broader heads too, but their legs are shorter, their tails am thicker, and their ears are smaller. In addition, the toes on their feet are splayed far apart from one another, unlike those of wolves, which probably affords them a somewhat flat-foot-ed, bearlike (plantigrade) mode of walking. Also unlike wolves, they am solitary hunters, and tend to be scavengers rather than active predators. Rarer than wolves, they spend most of the year up near the tundra region, coming south only in winter—except in the Nahanni Valley and certain other valleys to the west, where they reside throughout the year, but remain aloof from humans." Theories Ivan T. Sanderson suggested the waheela was a living bear-dog, a prehistoric mammal of the family Amphicyonidae which lived in America until the Miocene. They may have had wolflike faces, and certainly had powerful shoulder and thigh bones, as well as plantigrade feet. Karl Shuker writes that if there is anywhere in North America where these animals could have survived into the present day, it is the cold, forested regions from where the waheela is reported. George Eberhart also lists outsized grey wolves, which may have almost white pelts in northern latitudes, as a possible explanation. Similar cryptids *The shunka warak'in, a wolf- or hyena-like cryptid reported from the . Notes and references Category:Cryptids Category:North America Category:Canada Category:United States Category:United States - Alaska Category:Canids Category:Theory: Living fossil - Bear dog Category:No recent sightings Category:Northwest Territories, Canada Category:Michigan, U.S.